: Unfair Motivation for a Judge to Dislike an Accused I have a scene where a character is applying to be released from prison pending trial. I want an arbitrary / unfair reason for the judge

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You don't need a valid/justifiable reason to dislike someone.

Maybe the judge didn't even care.

Maybe he was just watching porn on his smart phone and decided to reject the appeal, because that's his default answer...

The point is, it is hard work to explain why the judge dislikes him.. ;)

All you want to do is to have the guy stay in prison for the wrong reasons, and have the judge be the 'bad' guy...

So why not just go for it?

You can throw in whatever you want the readers to not like about him in the story.. And it didn't even matter ...

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In a modern setting, the prosecution may submit something like blogs or emails intended to prove the defendant was involved in some crime or had knowledge of it.

But the judge, in reading these blogs, finds the defendant's other opinions repellent, even though legal. These could be talking about a callous attitude toward women, for example, or how he insisted his girlfriend have an abortion, or a liberal attitude about drugs or immigrants, or any number of other things allowed as free speech, that grates on the judge.

In any case by reading the defendant's communications, the judge just doesn't like the defendant as a person or human being, even though the behavior itself does not rise to the level of criminal activity; it is just an "ick" factor for the judge and the reader.

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Have you considered racism? May not fit with your story, but maybe some kind of societal objection ... like wrong accent, hair too long, tattoos ... all arbitrary, but could influence someone to be more harsh/unfair.

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